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Ebola toll climbs even amid 'encouraging signs,' WHO says

EBOLA VIRUS SPREADS BEYOND WEST AFRICA

Thomas Eric Duncan of Monrovia, Liberia, is the first patient to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the USA. While visiting relatives, he developed symptoms and is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas. Since December, there have been 7,492 cases and 3,439 deaths attributed to the Ebola virus in five countries in West Africa and the USA, according to the World Health Organization.

The death toll from Ebola's devastation in West Africa has topped 1,200, even as the World Health Organization said Tuesday it sees some encouraging signs in the fight to contain the virus.

From Thursday through Saturday, WHO recorded 113 new cases and an additional 84 deaths, bringing the totals since the outbreak began to 2,240 cases, and 1,229 deaths, a fatality rate of 55%. Since emerging in December, the outbreak has been concentrated in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and more recently Nigeria.

The WHO, however, said in a release Tuesday the situation "looks reassuring" in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa's most populous city. That's where the first imported case arrived in July with the death of a Liberian-American traveler. In addition to the traveler, Patrick Sawyer, Nigeria has had 14 confirmed or suspected cases as of Aug. 16, three of whom died. All those infected were tied to health care workers or had direct contact with Sawyer, who died the day he arrived.

Sawyer was sick and vomiting while flying from Liberia to Nigeria, but did not pass the virus to fellow passengers, according to the WHO. The trip took place more than 21 days ago, so there is no longer any chance that fellow travelers could fall ill.

One of those who contracted the infection from Sawyer has now fully recovered, which should help reduce public fear. "It counters the widespread perception that infection with the Ebola virus is invariably a death sentence," the WHO statement said.

WHO also said the outbreak in Guinea where the virus first appeared in December has been brought under control and is "less alarming" than in Liberia or Sierra Leone. The progress there "is fragile," however, the WHO reported, with another outbreak possible. One case was reported last week in a previously unaffected area of the country, suggesting that the virus was continuing its spread.

In Liberia, Ebola is still raging out of control, despite quarantines and other containment efforts. More Liberians appear to be dying from the virus than in other countries. According to WHO statistics, 466 people out of 834 infected have died – a death rate of about 56%. Sierra Leone is reporting a 43% death rate, though it is possible that not all cases have been counted.

On the positive side, three Liberian health workers who received an experimental drug to treat Ebola are showing signs of recovery, officials said Tuesday, although medical experts caution it is not certain if the drug is effective.

The Liberians are being treated with the last known doses of ZMapp, which had earlier been given to two infected Americans and a Spaniard. The Americans are improving, but the Spaniard died.

"The medical professionals have informed the Liberian information ministry their progress is 'remarkable'," the ministry said in a statement, adding that they are showing "very positive signs of recovery."

Experts have said it's unclear if ZMapp, which had never before been tested in humans, is effective. Even if it is, the California-based maker of the drug has said more supplies of the drug won't be available for months.

Authorities in West Africa have had difficulty persuading the sick to seek treatment, relatives have sometimes taken their loved ones away from health centers and mobs have occasionally attacked health workers.

In an effort to stem the spread of Ebola, officials have imposed quarantines and travel restrictions for the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes shutting off whole villages and counties.

Those restrictions are limiting access to food and other basic necessities, said the WHO. The U.N. World Food Program has said that it is preparing to deliver food to 1 million people over the next three months.

"I think now there is a high vigilance in all countries," Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokeswoman, told reporters in Geneva. "I can't remember the last time we fed 1 million people in a quarantine situation."

Health workers with the International Federation of the Red Cross and personnel with Doctors Without Borders take participate in a pre-deployment Ebola training exercise on Oct. 29 at Red Cross headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images

A Kenyan Port Health Services worker tells a boy to return to an observation room for Ebola screening at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on Oct. 28.
Daniel Irungu, European Pressphoto Agency

A photograph provided by attorney Steven Hyman shows nurse Kaci Hickox in an isolation tent on Oct. 26 at University Hospital in Newark, N.J. Hickox was quarantined in New Jersey after caring for Ebola patients in West Africa. She was being released after being symptom-free for 24 hours and will be flown to Maine. She complained that there was not a shower, flushable toilet, television or reading material in the isolation tent.
Steven Hyman via AP

Amber Vinson, right, a Texas nurse who contracted Ebola after treating an infected patient, hugs members of her nursing team during a press conference after being released from care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Daniel Shirey, Getty Images

Members of the Community Outreach Team hand out information about Ebola to residents outside an apartment building at 172nd Street and Stratford Avenue in New York. A 5-year-old boy who lives in the building and recently returned to New York City from the West African nation of Guinea is being tested for Ebola after he was rushed to the hospital with symptoms consistent with the disease, according to health officials.
Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images

New York City Police officers stand in front of 546 West 147th Street, the apartment building of Dr. Craig Spencer on Oct. 25. Spencer, who was working in Africa with the Doctors Without Borders organization, was quarantined after showing symptoms of the virus after his return to New York City.
Bryan Thomas, Getty Images

Members of the Department of Defense's Ebola Military Medical Support Team dress with protective gear during training at San Antonio Military Medical Centerin San Antonio on Oct. 24. The team will consist of 20 critical care nurses, 5 doctors trained in infectious disease, and 5 trainers in infectious disease protocols.
Eric Gay, AP

Members of the media gather in front of the closed Gutter bowling alley, where Craig Spencer bowled recently in Brooklyn, N.Y. Spencer, who tested positive as New York's first case of Ebola, is in isolation at Bellevue Hospital.
Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images

Health alerts regarding people who may have traveled to particular West African countries are posted in the lobby of Bellevue Hospital in New York. Craig Spencer, a resident of New York City and a member of Doctors Without Borders, was admitted to Bellevue Thursday and has been diagnosed with Ebola.
Mark Lennihan, AP

Women work on a protective suit for use in handling people infected with the Ebola virus in a sewing room at Lakeland Industries Inc. Lakeland, a global manufacturer of industrial protective clothing, produces suits to be worm by healthcare workers and others being exposed to Ebola.
Johannes Eisele, AFP/Getty Images

Spec. Jason Dumas, left, helps Spec. David Quichocho, right, with his protective boots during a training session at Ft. Carson. Both soldiers are from the 615th Engineer Company, 52nd Engineer Battalion which will be deploying approximately 160 engineers to West Africa to help with the fight against Ebola.
Jerilee Bennett, The Colorado Springs Gazette via AP

A Liberian health worker disinfects a street corner where a suspected Ebola patient was picked up and taken into an ambulance to be transported to an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia.
Ahmed Jallanzo, European PressPhoto Agency

Health workers from the Liberian Red Cross wear protective gear as they shovel sand which will be used to absorb fluids emitted from the bodies of Ebola victims in front of the ELWA 2 Ebola management center in Monrovia.
Zoom Dosso, AFP/Getty Images

German volunteering soldiers wear protective equipment in Appen, Germany, as they take part in an intensive course to prepare volunteer helpers for their deployment in Ebola-hit countries.
Bodo Marks, AFP/Getty Images

Doctors and nurses take part in training in treating infectious diseases in an isolation room during a presentation on diagnosing and treating patients with Ebola virus symptoms in Bern, Switzerland, on Oct. 23.
Alessandro Della Valle, European Pressphoto Agency

Filipino health workers hold anti-government placards outside a public hospital intended for Ebola patients in Manila. The group criticized the government in its hope of combating and responding to the threat of Ebola, if it hits the country. Placard reads; "The government can't provide sufficient funding for Tuberculosis let alone Ebola."
Dennis M. Sabangan, european pressphoto agency

The Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control displays protective gear during a demonstration on how to handle Ebola patients in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan has not reported any Ebola infection cases but has designated six hospitals to treat Ebola patients.
Taiwan CDC via European Pressphoto Agency

Ashoka Mukpo shakes hands with physician Kristina Bailey after being released from the treatment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center on Oct. 22 in Omaha. Mukpo was treated and released at UNMC after contracting Ebola in West Africa while working as a freelance journalist.
Taylor Wilson, Nebraska Medicine via Getty Images

A health care worker in protective gear sprays disinfectant around the house of a person suspected to have Ebola virus in Port Loko Community, on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Michael Duff, AP

British Army medics board an airplane as they depart for Sierra Leone at RAF Brize Norton in Brize Norton, England. They will man the Ebola Training Academy, instructing the health care workers who will be working in the five Ebola Treatment Units the UK is currently building.
Matt Cardy, Getty Images

Participants in an Ebola education session look over printed materials in New York. Thousands of participants, mostly health care workers, attended the session to review basic facts about Ebola and updated guidelines for protection against its spread.
Seth Wenig, AP

Barbara Smith, left, a nurse at Mount Sinai Health Systems, and Dr. Bryan Christiansen, a member of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Infection Control Team for the Ebola Response, demonstrate proper safety techniques during an Ebola education session for healthcare workers at the Jacobs Javits Center on Oct. 21 in New York.
Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images

British military medics wait at a departure lounge before boarding an aircraft for Sierra Leone at Royal Air Force base Brize Norton in England. The medics from 35 Squadron, 5th Medical Regiment, will staff the Ebola Training Academy, instructing health care workers who will be working at five treatment units.
Matt Cardy, Getty Images

Passengers leave the Carnival Magic after docking in Galveston. A Dallas lab supervisor who handled a specimen from Thomas Eric Duncan, who died last week after contracting Ebola, was in voluntary isolation in her cabin aboard the cruise ship. She tested negative.
Jennifer Reynolds, AP

Men in hazmat suits clean the station where a person became sick at a DART train station in Dallas on Oct. 18. The person had supposedly been at the same apartment complex where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying.
Larry W. Smith, European Pressphoto Agency

A health worker takes a baby from his mother as he prepares to carry the infant to a reopened Ebola holding center on Oct. 17 in the West Point neighborhood in Monrovia, Liberia. The baby, his mother and grandmother were all taken to the Ebola center after they tested positive for a fever.
John Moore, Getty Images

An Ebola tracing coordinator checks the temperature of Jessica Sompon and discovers she has a fever in the West Point neighborhood in Monrovia. A family member living in the home died the previous day from Ebola.
John Moore, Getty Images

A custodial worker leaves after cleaning Davis Elementary School in Dallas, Texas. The school was closed after it was discovered that a health care worker who treated one of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurses infected with the Ebola virus lives at a home with students from the school.
Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Employees with Cleaning Guys Environmental carry disinfecting equipment into North Belton Middle School. The Central Texas school district has temporarily closed three of its campuses after a family of four, including two students from the district, traveled on the same flight as a nurse who has since been diagnosed with Ebola.
Rusty Schramm, The Temple Daily Telegram, via AP

An ambulance carrying Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurse Nina Pham leaves the Frederick Municipal Airport on Oct. 16 in Frederick, Md. Pham contracted Ebola when she was part of a team who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who eventually died from the virus on Oct. 8.
Mark Wilson, Getty Images

People for a convoy transporting Texas nurse Nina Pham after she arrived at Frederick Municipal Airport on Oct. 16 in Frederick, Md. Pham was moved to the National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Md.
Patrick Semansky, AP

Hospital staffers cheer as an ambulance transporting nurse Nina Pham, who is infected with Ebola, leaves Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for Love Field in Dallas. Dozens of co-workers gathered outside the hospital and waved signs in support as Pham was flown to a health care facility in Maryland for treatment.
G.J. McCarthy, The Dallas Morning News, via AP

After putting on their protective gear, hazmat workers on Oct. 16 prepare to enter the apartment at The Village Bend East complex where a second health care worker who has tested positive for the Ebola virus resides, in Dallas. Nurse Amber Vinson joins Nina Pham as health workers who have contracted the Ebola virus at Texas Heath Presbyterian Hospital while treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who has since died.
Mike Stone, Getty Images

Hazmat workers with Protect Environmental unload barrels in preparation for decontaminating an apartment at The Village Bend East apartment complex where Amber Vinson, a second health care worker who has tested positive for the Ebola virus, resides in Dallas.
Mike Stone, Getty Images

Members of the Dallas Fire-Rescue Haz Mat Unit tapes off the door of a second health care worker who tested positive for the Ebola virus on Oct. 15 at the The Village Bend East apartments in Dallas. The worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was monitoring herself for symptoms and reported a fever. She was in isolation within 90 minutes.
Sana Syed, City of Dallas, via AP

Heinz Schuhmacher, left, and Marc Dangel, advisers for infection prevention, show how to properly put on protective garments during a demonstration on how to handle Ebola cases at the university hospital in Basel, Switzerland. The World Health Organization projects the Ebola infection rates in West Africa will rise to 5,000 to10,000 new cases a week by December.
Ennio Leanza, European Pressphoto Agency

Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event in Monrovia, Liberia. The group performs street dramas to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and the handling of people who are infected with the virus.
John Moore, Getty Images

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Samuel Hines, left, helps U.S. Army Cpl. Zachary Wicker tape gloves to his uniform during a demonstration at Fort Bliss, Texas. Five hundred soldiers from Fort Bliss are preparing for deployment to West Africa to provide support in a military effort to contain the Ebola outbreak.
Juan Carlos LLorca, AP

Bentley, the one year-old King Charles Spaniel belonging to nurse Nina Pham who contracted Ebola, is removed from her apartment to be cared for at an undisclosed location.
Sana Syed, City of Dallas, via AP

A Liberian health worker from a Red Cross burial team is disinfected after collecting the bodies of Ebola victims in the Point Four community outside Monrovia.
Ahmed Jallanzo, European Pressphoto Agency

Ebola survivor Abrahim Quota, 5, is handed a letter confirming his recovery from the virus after he and other survivors were released from the JFK Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. Both of his parents died at the center, and Health Ministry workers planned to take him to live with his closest relatives.
John Moore, Getty Images

Health workers dress in protective clothing before taking the body of an Ebola victim from the Island Clinic Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. A planned strike at Ebola treatment centers was averted as most nurses and health care workers reported for work. Health workers have asked for increased hazard pay. They are one of the most high-risk groups for Ebola infection. Nearly 100 of them have died in Liberia.
John Moore, Getty Images

Mohammed Jan Jallo, 40, smiles while looking over a letter from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), labeling him as Ebola-free, following his recovery at the MSF treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia. He said he works as a vendor in a market and has no idea from whom he contracted the disease.
John Moore, Getty Images

Maria Uruchimadecriollo cleans a bathroom at JFK Terminal 4 international arrivals in Jamaica, N.Y., on Oct. 11. Uruchimadecriollo is wearing a mask that her husband bought for her yesterday in hopes of keeping her safe from the Ebola virus.
Jennifer S. Altman, for USA TODAY

A burial team disinfects the body of Ebola victim Mekie Nagbe before removing it for cremation on Oct. 10 in Monrovia, Liberia. Nagbe, a market vendor, collapsed and died outside her home earlier in the morning as she was about to walk to a treatment center.
John Moore, Getty Images

Medical practitioners shout against Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy during his visit to the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. A Spanish hospital official says the nursing assistant infected with Ebola is "stable," hours after authorities described her condition as critical. She is the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. She contracted the virus while helping treat a Spanish missionary who became infected in West Africa, and later died. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza) ORG XMIT: DO113
Daniel Ochoa de Olza, AP

An ambulance is readied by technicians wearing biological hazard clothing as they prepare to transport a Guinean patient suspected of having contracted Ebola, in Cascavel, Brazil.
Luiz Carlos Cruz, AFP/Getty Images

A passenger is checked at checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 9 in Queens, New York. Travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa will have their temperature taken and fill out a questionnaire when they arrive at one of five major U.S. airports.
Justin Lane, European Pressphoto Agency

A health worker takes the temperature of U.S. Marines arriving to help stem the Ebola outbreak during Operation United Assistance near Monrovia, Liberia. Ninety Marines will support the American effort to contain the epidemic.
John Moore, Getty Images

U.S. Air Force personnel put up tents to house a 25-bed U.S.-built hospital for sick Liberian health workers as part of Operation United Assistance in Monrovia, Liberia. President Obama has committed up to 4,000 troops in West Africa to combat the Ebola epidemic.
John Moore, Getty Images

U.S. Marines arrive as part of Operation United Assistance in Monrovia, Liberia. Around 90 Marines, the largest group of U.S. military yet, arrived on MV-22 Ospreys and KC-130 transport planes to support the American effort to contain the Ebola epidemic.
John Moore, Getty Images

Moroccan health workers screen passengers at the arrivals hall of the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca. Air Maroc, along with Air France and Brussels Airlines, are still flying to Ebola-hit West Africa, with the backing of the World Health Organization. The WHO has urged the airlines to keep flying, saying the risk to public health from air travel itself is low and that flights bring needed aid workers and supplies.
Abdeljalil Bounhar, AP

U.S. Air Force airmen from the 633rd Medical Group set up tents for a 25-bed hospital to aid Liberian health workers infected with Ebola near Monrovia, Liberia. The airmen are setting up the modular hospital, known by the military as an expeditionary medical support system (EMEDS), near the international airport outside of Monrovia. The airmen will train U.S. public health service members in using the hospital's medical equipment, but will not be involved in treatment of Ebola patients.
John Moore, Getty Images

Licensed clinician Margaret Chilcott removes her outer gloves before disrobing and sanitizing in Anniston, Ala. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed an introductory training course for licensed clinicians. According to the CDC, the course is to ensure that clinicians intending to provide medical care to patients with Ebola have sufficient knowledge of the disease.
Brynn Anderson, AP

A volunteer doctor who will travel to West Africa to help care for Ebola patients is disinfected during a training exercise conducted by the German Red Cross in Wuerzburg.
Timm Schamberger, Getty Images

Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, walks with Nowai korkoyah, the mother of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, and Josephus Weeks, the patient's nephew, after they spoke to the media at the South Dallas Cafe in Dallas. Jackson was visiting to show support of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan and his family.
Joe Raedle, Getty Images

A Spanish nurse infected with Ebola is moved to Carlos III Hospital from Alcorcon Hospital on Oct. 7 in Madrid. The nurse tested positive for the virus after treating two Ebola patients who had been brought back to Spain from Africa.
Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno, Getty Images

Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance video journalist, is loaded into an ambulance after arriving in Omaha. Mukpo, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center for treatment.
James R. Burnett, Omaha World-Herald, via AP

A U.S. Air Force airman sets up a barbed wire barricade during preparations for an Ebola treatment center reserved for contaminated health care workers in Monrovia, Liberia.
Pascal Guyot, AFP/Getty Images

A Doctors Without Borders health worker in protective clothing carries a child suspected of having Ebola at a treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia. The girl and her mother, who were showing symptoms of the deadly disease, were awaiting test results for the virus.
John Moore, Getty Images

A member of the Cleaning Guys Haz Mat company takes a barrel of items out of the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was staying before being admitted to a hospital in Dallas.
Joe Raedle, Getty Images

In Brussels, volunteers train at a Doctors Without Borders' replica of an Ebola treatment center before being sent to help fight the spread of the deadly virus in Africa.
Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images

A Liberian Ministry of Health worker speaks to a child at a holding center for suspected Ebola patients on Oct. 3 at Redemption Hospital in Monrovia. The child arrived with his sick mother and two siblings to be tested for Ebola. His father died of the disease last week.
John Moore, Getty Images

A hazardous-materials cleaner arrives at an apartment in the Ivy Apartments complex in Dallas. An Ebola patient, who is being treated at a local hospital, traveled from Liberia to the U.S. and stayed at the apartment last week.
L.M. Otero, AP

Medical personnel at an Ebola treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, disinfect people who had transported people suspected of having the Ebola virus Oct. 2.
Pascal Guyot, AFP/Getty Images

A health worker watches as a burial team collects Ebola victims from a Ministry of Health treatment center for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia. Eight Liberian Red Cross burial teams under contract with the country's Ministry of Health collect the bodies of Ebola victims each day in the capital.
John Moore, Getty Images

The first members of a team of 165 Cuban doctors and health workers unload boxes of medicine and medical material from a plane at Freetown's airport in Sierra Leone.
Florian Plaucheur, AFP/Getty Images

A pedestrian wears a surgical mask as he crosses the street in front of Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan, an Ebola patient who traveled from Liberia to Dallas last week, is being treated.
Nathan Hunsinger, The Dallas Morning News, via AP

Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson, left, and Christopher Perkins, medical director of Dallas County Health Authority, leave an apartment unit at The Ivy Apartment Complex in Dallas. Officials ave ordered family members who had contact with the patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus to stay inside their Texas home.
Tony Gutierrez, AP

Candis Holt, a mother of a kindergarten student at L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary school in Dallas, shows a paper handed out by school officials that list frequently asked questions about the Ebola virus. One or more students that attend the school came in contact with a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus.
Tony Gutierrez AP

Two days after a man in Texas was diagnosed with Ebola, Gil Mobley, a Missouri doctor, checks in to board a passenger aircraft dressed in full protection gear during a protest at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Mobley claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is mismanaging the response to the Ebola virus.
John Spink, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via AP

Relief aid supplies for the regions stricken by Ebola in Liberia are loaded onto a 747 cargo plane at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization, is shipping a 747 cargo jet filled with supplies, including rubber gloves, face masks, rubber boots and disinfectants.
Nell Redmond, European Pressphoto Agency

Gordon Kamara, left, is sprayed by Konah Deno after they loaded six patients suspected to have been infected by the Ebola virus into their ambulance at Freeman Reserve village near Monrovia.
Jerome Delay, AP

Health workers in protective suits greet a woman who has come to deliver food to relatives at Island Hospital where people suffering from the Ebola virus are being treated in Monrovia.
Pascal Guyot, AFP/Getty Images

Health officials take the body temperature of an Ukrainian worker on the MV Pintail cargo ship as they check for signs of the Ebola virus at the Apapa Sea Port in Lagos, Nigeria.
Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP/Getty Images

Women and children attend a mass in Monrovia. Liberia, the nation hardest-hit by the Ebola virus. The country has seen 3,000 cases and almost 1,600 deaths, with health workers turning people away from treatment unitsbecause of shortages of beds and staff.
Pascal Guyot, AFP/Getty Images

A nurse puts on protective gear during a demonstration at an Ebola quarantine unit set up at the Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital on Sept. 26 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Jekesai Njikizana, AFP/Getty Images

A Liberian man carries his sick brother, suspected of having Ebola, after being delayed admission to the Island Clinic Ebola Treatment Unit due to a lack of beds at the clinic on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia.
Ahmed Jallanzo, epa

A nurse puts on protective gear during a demonstration at an Ebola quarantine unit set up at the Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital on Sept. 26 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Jekesai Njikizana, AFP/Getty Images

A nurse puts on protective gear during a demonstration at an Ebola quarantine unit set up at the Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital on Sept. 26 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Jekesai Njikizana, AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Rick Sacra, an American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus, describes what he was able to see of his caregivers while being treated at a Nebraska isolation facility during a media event at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Sacra is one of three American aid workers successfully treated after contracting the virus in West Africa.
Stephan Savoia, AP

A nurse puts on protective gear during a demonstration at an Ebola quarantine unit set up at the Wilkins Infectious Diseases Hospital on Sept. 26 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Jekesai Njikizana, AFP/Getty Images

Dr. Richard Sacra walks around a plane after arriving in Worcester, Mass. After three weeks in isolation, Sacra, an American doctor who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa, says he's grateful for the specialized care that allowed him to recover.
Christine Peterson, Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP

People sick from the Ebola virus waits outside Island Clinic, a new treatment center, in Monrovia. The first members of a team of 165 Cuban doctors and health workers have arrived in Sierra Leone to help the fight against Ebola, a health official said.
Zoom Dosso, AFP/Getty Images

A woman wears protective clothing on Sept. 23 at an Ebola center in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has not reported any cases of the deadly virus but is on high alert and has set up Ebola centers to screen people.
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, AP

People remain indoors to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Volunteers went door-to-door during a three-day lockdown intended to combat the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Michael Duff, AP

Volunteers from the United Nations Development Program conduct a meeting with students to raise awareness about the symptoms of the Ebola virus at the Sainte Therese school on Sept. 15 in Koumassi, Ivory Coast.
Sia Kambou, AFP/Getty Images

Red Cross health workers disinfect themselves as they prepare to remove the body of an Ebola victim on Sept. 14 at the Doctors Without Borders treatement center near the Donka Hospital in Conakry, Guinea.
Cellou Binani, AFP/Getty Images

Paige Kula, a Valor Christian High School sophomore and volunteer, loads a pallet with medical supplies bound for Sierra Leone at the Project CURE warehouse in Centennial, Colo. The charity is shipping $400,000 of supplies to West Africa to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus.
Brennan Linsley, AP

Nancy Writebol, center, a SIM USA missionary who recovered from the Ebola virus, prays with her husband David, right, and Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, at a news conference at the SIM USA headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Writebol and another patient, Kent Brantly, were treated and cured with an experimental drug that has never been tested on humans.
Chris Keane, Getty Images

A worker with the World Food Program organizes people waiting in a food distribution line in Dolo's Town, Liberia, on Sept. 2. The town was quarantined to contain the spread of the Ebola virus.
Dominique Faget, AFP/Getty Images

Health workers disinfect the body of a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on Sept. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 1,500 people, and authorities have cordoned off entire towns in an effort to halt the spread of the virus.
Abbas Dulleh, AP

An image from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a scanning electron micrograph of the Ebola virus budding from the surface of a Vero cell of an African green monkey on Aug. 29.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases via European Pressphoto Agency

A man reads a poster raising awareness on the Ebola virus in Abidjian, Ivory Coast. The words read, "The risk of Ebola is still there. Let us apply the protective measures together." The Ivory Coast has banned all flights from countries hit by Ebola.
Sia Kambou, AFP/Getty Images

A government burial team prepares to burn the bodies of Ebola victims at a crematorium on Aug. 22 in Marshall, Liberia. The Ebola epidemic has killed at least 1,350 people in West Africa.
John Moore, Getty Images

A worker with a humanitarian group throws water packets to residents of the West Point slum as they wait for food near Monrovia, Liberia. The government has isolated 75,000 people living in West Point as they race to contain the Ebola outbreak.
Abbas Dulleh, AP

A worker sterilizes an area as suspected Ebola patient Finda Zanabo, center, watches over her sick family members near the Doctors Without Borders treatment facility for the West Point slum.
John Moore, Getty Images

A Liberian army soldier from the Ebola Task Force beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on Aug. 20 in Monrovia. The government ordered the quarantine of the congested seaside slum in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.
John Moore, Getty Images

West Point Commissioner Miata Flowers, center, is escorted out of the slum by members of the Ebola Task Force in Monrovia. The military evacuated the commissioner and her family after residents blamed the government for setting up a holding center for suspected Ebola patients in their community. A mob overran and closed the facility on Aug. 16.
John Moore, Getty Images

Workers pass an Ebola virus warning sign in Manila, Philippines. Thousands of Filipinos working in western African countries have been evacuated after an Ebola virus outbreak.
Ritchie B. Tongo, European Pressphoto Agency

Staff from the Qingdao Inspection and Quarantine Bureau gear up with protective suits as they prepare to inspect and disinfect a cargo ship arriving from the Ebola epidemic area on Aug. 19 in Shandong province, China.
ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images

Liberian soldiers escort a man who took a power generator from an Ebola isolation unit in West Point, Monrovia, on Aug. 19. The building was being used as an isolation unit for Ebola victims when it was attacked and overrun by angry residents.
Ahmed Jallkanzo, European Pressphoto Agency

A man checks on Saah Exco in a back alley of the West Point slum. The boy was a patient at a holding center for suspected Ebola patients when the facility was overrun by a mob on Aug. 16. A local clinic refused to treat the boy because of the danger of infection.
John Moore, Getty Images

The performing group Be Kok Spirit march to raise awareness of the Ebola virus in Abidjian, Ivory Coast. The words on the sign reads, "Stop Ebola. It is a reality. Go away."
Sia Kambou, AFP/Getty Images

Police officers wear protective face masks as they prepare to enter a job center after a woman suspected of carrying the Ebola virus collapsed in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, Germany.
Adam Berry, Getty Images

Local residents listen as United Nations health workers speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries.
John Moore, Getty Images

Hanah Siafa lies with her daughter, Josephine, hoping to enter the new Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on Aug. 17 in Monrovia. The facility has 120 beds, making it the largest facility for Ebola treatment and isolation.
John Moore, Getty Images

People watch as a crowd protests before entering the grounds of an Ebola isolation center in the West Point slum of Monrovia, Liberia. Several hundred people chanted, "No Ebola in West Point," opened the gates and took out the patients, many saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax.
John Moore, Getty Images

A health worker speaks to family members and neighbors of a woman who died overnight in Monrovia, Liberia, on on August 16, 2014. Many people in the slum believe that the epidemic is a fraud and that people are dying from other causes.
John Moore, Getty Images

Local residents tell patients in an Ebola isolation ward to come out, as a mob overran the facility in the West Point in Monrovia, Liberia, on August 16. A crowd of several hundred people, chanting, "No Ebola in West Point," crashed through the gates and took out the patients, saying that the Ebola epidemic is a hoax.
John Moore, Getty Images

Umu Fambulle, center, tries to help her husband, Ibrahim, after he fell and was knocked unconscious in an Ebola ward on Aug. 15 in Monrovia, Liberia. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people in four West African countries.
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A Liberian health department burial team disinfect their protective clothing after retrieving the body of a suspected Ebola virus victim in Monrovia. Teams of undertakers wearing protective clothing are collecting bodies in the capital, where the spread of the highly contagious Ebola virus has been called catastrophic.
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A soldier from the Sierra Leone army stands near an Ebola information poster outside Kailahun. Kailahun and Kenama district is at the epicenter of the world's worst Ebola outbreak.
Carl De Souza, AFP/Getty Images

A nurse and a doctor demonstrate the decontamination procedure for the Ebola virus at the Station 59 quarantine unit at Charite Hospital on Aug. 11 in Berlin, Germany. The specialized quarantine unit is among a handful of facilities in Germany capable of handling Ebola cases.
Sean Gallup, Getty Images

A thermal camera monitor shows the body temperature of passengers arriving at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea. South Korea has stepped up the monitoring of its citizens returning from trips to West Africa and other areas affected by the deadly Ebola virus.
Choe Jae-koo, AP

Health workers move Roman Catholic priest Miguel Pajares, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus, at Torrejon air base on Aug. 7 in Spain. A Spanish charity said a third member of its hospital staff in Liberia has died of Ebola.
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Dr. Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, points out areas of Liberia in West Africa that have been affected by Ebola on Aug. 7 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta, Ga.
Branden Camp, European Pressphoto Agency

A health specialist prepares for work in an isolation ward for patients infected with the Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus at a Doctors Without Borders facility on March 31 in southern Guinea. Health officials are racing to contain a spiraling Ebola epidemic that has killed 86 people in the West African nation.
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A doctor disinfects dishes on March 31. All passengers departing from Guinea's airport must fill out health forms and have their temperature taken. Anyone with a temperature over 100.4 degrees would be tested for the disease.
Seyllou via AFP/Getty Images

Health workers with Doctors Without Borders disinfect equipment as they prepare to set up their Ebola hemorrhagic fever treatment center on March 28.
Kjell Gunnar Beraas, Doctors Without Borders, via AP